‘I was lucky enough to land, I feel like a miracle,’ – survivor

‘I was lucky enough to land, I feel like a miracle,’ – survivor

Davide Capello

Former Italian soccer professional Davide Capello can only describe it as a miracle.

Wearing a blue hospital gown and sitting up in bed, Capello looks physically unscathed but emotionally shattered as he describes how the road beneath his car collapsed as he was driving over Morandi bridge.

“I heard a heavy sound, and I saw cars in front of me falling. I saw the road collapse, then I fell with them. I thought it was all over for me,” said Capello (above), who played for the Italy U20 team and mainly in the lower leagues of Italian soccer. He took up a new career as a firefighter in late 2013.

Few were as lucky as Capello, who walked away with barely a scratch, though his car was a mangled wreck.

“I was lucky enough to land, I don’t even know how because if you saw my car. I felt as though a miracle happened. It was like being in a film. I saw the rescuers who arrived, the fire brigade, everyone,” he said.

Capello said he survived with only minor injuries because his car fell between concrete blocks that formed a sort of protection from further damage. He said he could not erase from his mind the image of the road giving way, with four cars in front of him.

“I feel like a miracle,” he said, before invoking the patron saint of Italian firefighters. “Saint Barbara protected me.”